NORTON - This year's Sept. 11 remembrance at Wheaton College will end with first-year students helping alleviate a different kind of crisis.

The economic one.

After the 12:30 p.m. remembrance in Wheaton's Dimple Friday, interested first-year students will have lunch with Norton senior citizens before heading to volunteer at HeadStart, Norton's Library Park and the Attleboro-Norton YMCA, Associate Dean of Service, Spirituality and Social Responsibility Vereene Parnell said.

The effort was inspired by President Barack Obama's call to make this Sept. 11 the first National Day of Service and Remembrance, Parnell said.

"The whole thing is to take a tragedy and take what has sort of become a perpetual day of mourning into something that looks forward, not backward," she said. About 90 first-year students have signed up for Friday's activities, which will start with a 10- to 15-minute ceremony, Parnell said.

The students then will have lunch - and a games tournament - with Norton seniors, in the Chapel basement.

"Hopefully, they'll tell our students stories about what living in Norton is like," Parnell said.

Then, the volunteering starts.

Some students will go to Head Start, where they will help prepare five classrooms for the start of school; Norton's Library Park, where they will join volunteers cleaning up the site; and the Attleboro-Norton YMCA, where they will help staff in an unspecified role, Parnell said.

Wheaton officials wanted students to help agencies "hit especially hard by the economic downturn" and ones that "we want to maintain a sustainable connection with," she said.

During the academic year, students could visit Norton's senior center or meet seniors for activities on a regular basis, Parnell said, or students may want to teach classes at the Y, she said.

"We really are going to be trying to connect the Norton and Wheaton populations, because we really are one community," she said.

Wheaton officials also are asking anyone embracing the spirit of the day to bring non-perishable donations for the Cupboard of Kindness, Norton's food pantry.

"Because of the economic downturn, the demands on food pantries and soup kitchens has really gone through the roof," she said. MICHAEL GELBWASSER can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com.